Student's family hires investigator

In addition to efforts by the University Police Department to locate missing student David Dantzler-Wolfe, the Wharton junior's mother has commissioned a private investigation. Coordinated by the family's lawyer, the private investigation is being spearheaded by Frank Friel, president of the Philadelphia-based private investigation firm Atlantic Security International Investigations. Friel explained that he was hired as "another set of eyes and ears that has a primary focus on the absence of David," noting that the University Police "have a multitude of priorities." Last week, sources in the Philadelphia and University Police departments said that Dantzler-Wolfe had been investigated by the University Police for entering another student's "abode" and videotaping her. This investigation began prior to Dantzler-Wolfe's Dec. 10 disappearance. University officials have remained tight-lipped regarding this investigation. "No one will comment on anything other than the missing person investigation," Director of Special Services for University Police Pat Brennan said Monday. Brennan, Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush and University spokeswoman Lori Doyle were unavailable for comment yesterday. When asked yesterday to comment on the investigation of Dantzler-Wolfe that began prior to Dec. 10, Friel said, "My contacts [in the University Police Department] have been forthright, helpful and cooperative, but I'm not privy to that investigation." The family's lawyer Steven Fairlie, however, expressed frustration in dealing with University officials. "No one at Penn is willing to confirm that a warrant exists," he said, adding, "At the very top of the administration, they won't confirm or deny anything." "It's not in their interest to bring that up," he noted, referring to the investigation that began before Dec. 10. Since disappearing in and of itself is not illegal, tracking missing persons becomes all the more time-consuming and difficult, according to Friel. "He's perfectly entitled to walk off campus and not notify anyone," Friel said. "I can't at this point attribute a motive to the young man. I can only conclude that he is no longer on the campus," Friel said. "When you have a young man who just decides to leave, for whatever reason, then those reasons usually remain his," Friel continued, highlighting the difficulties in working on a case where "the circumstances under which he left are as far as we know self-contained in his own mind." "We don't exist under Big Brother," Friel had said in an earlier conversation. "Should he choose to remain hidden, then he's very capable of doing so." While Friel is not working directly with University Police as he continues to investigate "friends, relatives, associates, bank accounts [and] phone records," he does believe that the UPPD has "been forthright, helpful and cooperative." When contacted last Thursday, neither Friel nor Fairlie said he had any knowledge of criminal investigations pre-dating Dantzler-Wolfe's disappearance. "Sherlock Holmes himself might not have solved this," Friel said.

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